Jason Logan

Jason Logan

Bits
Just before Dustin Johnson putted for eagle Sunday night at the U.S. Open I thought to myself, “Don’t three-putt.” Nobody’s ever rooting for an 18-hole Monday playoff when a U.S. Open week begins, BUT MAN THAT SUCKED ×× The heartbreak reminded me of Mike Weir at the 2004 Canadian Open. Leading by a shot, Weir had a relatively short birdie putt from above the hole on the 16th, then playing as a par 4. A colleague standing beside me remarked that Weir could seal the deal if he converted the putt. I responded that he better be careful not to three-putt because I knew how fast the green was from that spot. And that’s what Weir promptly did, which paved the way for a playoff with Vijay Singh he ultimately lost ×× Conclusion: I have to stop thinking such negative thoughts ×× And how about poor Wayne Gretzky, standing beside the 18th green watching his son-in-law in action? First he gets left on the bench for the shootout in Nagano and then that ×× I can’t be the only one who thought Johnson attempted his four-foot comebacker for birdie like it was three-and-a-half feet shorter. Take your time DJ ×× And because this shouldn’t be all about Johnson’s sorrow, Jordan Spieth (more on him below) must be commended for the way he bounced back and played the 18th hole after making a mess of the 17th. What a second shot.

Bites
That Louis Oosthuizen finished a shot out of a playoff at the U.S. Open is amazing. He was seven over par after his first round and played the final 54 holes in 11 under. You have to think if he wasn’t drawn with the scuffling Tiger Woods for the first two rounds he would have won the Open going away. Though some players won’t admit to this, a golfer’s game is often affected by how his or her playing partner is performing. Watching someone hit balls all over the place the way Woods was can bring you down. It can work the other way of course, with good play spurring on an entire threesome, but in this case I think Oosthuizen, and Rickie Fowler for that matter, suffered from their Woods grouping ×× If Captain Obvious from the Hotels.com commercials decides to hang up his bellhop garb, FOX on-course analyst Corey Pavin should be a shoo-in for the role. Man, some of the commentary on that broadcast was bad ×× A final thought on Chambers Bay, which I wrote about before the U.S. Open began: It’s an overly difficult design for a municipal course; it’s a shame the greens were so poor (according to some) for a major championship; I have no desire to play there again; the compelling theatre it helped produce is undeniable; and therefore I really hope the U.S. Open returns again soon ×× After winning on the Symetra Tour Sunday, Canada’s Brooke Henderson, 17, was made a full member of that circuit despite being underage. Before play began she petitioned the LPGA Tour (which oversees the Symetra Tour) to have the minimum age requirement for the developmental tour waived, a request that was granted after she won the tournament. (That does not mean the age requirement of 18 to join the LPGA Tour was waived). But per Symetra Tour rules any money Henderson won before becoming a member (including yesterday’s first-place cheque, that’s just over $30,000 in two starts) won’t count towards the circuit’s money list. That means Henderson is starting from scratch in an attempt to earn a 2016 LPGA Tour card by finishing among the top 10 on the Symetra Tour earnings ledger. She is not, however, starting from scratch as she continues to try to finish equivalent or better than the 40th place person on the season-ending LPGA Tour money list as a non-member, which she is currently in position to do (but running out of secured starts) and would also earn her membership on the big tour next year. Got it?

Barbs
Mark June 21 — the first day of summer — down as the date Jordan Spieth became golf’s new leading man. If the Masters was his moment of glory, the U.S. Open was golf’s. Because while the Masters might be the most magical of majors, it’s the U.S. Open that crowns the people’s champion and there is no better description for Spieth today than that. His second major, his second major of this season, puts the Tiger-and-Phil generation farther in the rearview mirror than any of Rory McIlroy’s four. Is that because Spieth is American? Maybe. Actually probably. But it’s also because something about Spieth screams winner, a quality to which sports fans naturally gravitate. Spieth was far from his best at Chambers Bay — especially with his putter, which is his best club — but he found a way to get the job done anyway (sure, with Johnson’s help, but in the end he was the player most under strokes to par and that’s all that matters) and now that he’s two legs into the grand slam nobody is going to be pulling harder for Woods to return to the winner’s circle at the Open Championship at St. Andrews than they will be for Spieth to make it three in a row. Spieth is not a better golfer than McIlroy, who I think is still far and away the game’s most talented, if frustratingly inconsistent, golfer. But whereas we wondered if McIlroy was starting to make people move on from Tiger, Spieth (coupled with Woods’s awfulness last week) most definitely is.

Obscure thought of the week: New ownership and Tim Hortons still can’t afford knives that can completely cut through a sandwich, like the ones from the All Knives site.